


Wing and Prayer

by TariellaAiden



Category: Fairy Tail
Genre: Action/Adventure, Battle, Body Swap, Fantasy, Fun, Gen, Humor, Suspense
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-08-18
Updated: 2016-07-16
Packaged: 2018-04-13 23:51:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 11
Words: 15,523
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4542276
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TariellaAiden/pseuds/TariellaAiden
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Dragon Slayers and their Exceed partners find themselves swapped with each other's bodies. As Magnolia takes the brunt of their desperate attempts to fix the situation, their search for a solution leads them on an epic adventure to the tucked-away village of Berubo where they meet an abundance of colourful characters. Still, despite the discoveries and turmoil, they have yet to realise body swapping is the least of their worries. </p>
<p>(Old title : Body Swap Mayhem!)</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Rumble and Tumble

A calamity was brewing on Strawberry Street, and unsurprisingly it involved the strongest guild in the Kingdom of Fiore. 

"Somehow," said Charle, a stern look gracing her features, "I just know this is your fault." She was sitting on Lucy's bed looking at a befuddled Natsu and Happy.

To a simple passerby, it looked as if Nastu had picked up his exceed friend, and was examining him at arms length. But then, a simple passerby wouldn't know they had just swapped bodies. Upon hearing her comment they both simultaneously turned to her and cried "This is _so_ not our fault!"  

Pantherlily scratched his forearm awkwardly and looked down at what used to be himself saying in a disappointed tone, "Am I _really_ that small?"

"Now's not the time to be worrying about that!" Charle shook her head, she couldn't believe these guys. Meanwhile somewhere in a corner of the room Wendy had taken to walking in tight circles, a small dark cloud blooming above her. "Wendy, we'll be alright!" her friend comforted. Wendy twitched her ears in response.

Brazenly leaning against the wall was Gajeel, looking less than pleased as he crossed his front paws over his chest. "Whatever, does anyone know how to get us back to normal?" 

"I'm kinda enjoying this!" Natsu grinned, totally ignoring him, trying to fly circles around his former body. "This flying thing will take some getting used to. Hey secretly, I've always wanted to know what it was like to have fur. Maybe I'll do a cat-bath!" He laughed demonically to himself. 

"Natsu -" said Happy.

Natsu stopped flying for a moment to hear out his little now-human friend.

"- please don't lick my privates." He tried to put on a serious voice, but ended up giggling nonetheless.

"Aye sir!" Natsu parodied his friends' catchphrase, raising his right hand to a salute. They both started rolling on the floor laughing at their own complicity, hands clutching their stomachs. Happy, not having adapted to his new-found height, rolled on Wendy's tail, who then squealed.

"Ooh, sorry Wendy!" he said, still smiling.

She stared at him for a second, then slowly looked down at herself "I...I'm naked!" Tears of embarrassment started pouring out like mini waterfalls, because indeed, she was only wearing a pink ribbon on the end of her tail.

"Technically you're a cat, so... there is no naked state." Natsu stretched his arms out cheerfully, paws behind his head, boldly sporting nothing but a green backpack. Wendy's gaze travelled over his bare fluff and it made her cry harder.

"You boys have no sensitivity!" Charle scolded, patting Wendy gently on the head, only relaxing when she started purring slightly. Happy, who didn't like being told off, let some poorly mastered fire dragon lava dribble submissively from his mouth. He also mentioned something about wanting to try out the bath.

All this madness had begun not long ago, as they had just come back from a failed mission. The job was to catch an elusive rascal, who got their kicks from filling people's doorsteps with fish every day. Since Happy had a major fish obsession, and the prize money was good, all six of them set off on the adventure. Unfortunately, as they discovered, the perpetrator was an even bigger fish, who had evolved in such a manner that he was somewhat amphibious. The fish was found out to be an endangered species, and the terrorised villagers decided to let him continue out of pity (and the prospect of starting a fish market with all the loot landing on their doorstep); saying things such as _poor soul_ and _such a lonely life_. Yet never was the ethical question raised of the mass murder this 'poor soul' was committing to fishkind. Either way they went home smelling terrible (much to Happy's delight), and penniless. 

It was on the train ride back, just before their arrival, that they swapped bodies. It was totally unexpected, and they stumbled into Magnolia not understanding anything; but tinged with a general sense of déja vu. The stumbling was emphasised on the male dragon slayer's part, much to Happy and Pantherlily's dismay as they cursed motion sickness and its mother. The best plan of action was to get to Lucy's place to hideout, that and figure out a much more viable plan of action. Lucy wasn't home of course, she was out on a job with Gray, despite Juvia's many protestations. But Natsu and Happy were now experts on sneaking into her place, and after some dusty clothes and a few questionable manoeuvres, they had infiltrated her home without a stitch, bringing us back to the current situation.

"We can't stay here forever." Gajeel was itching to be outside, where he could put some distance between him and the noisy fire mages and blue exceeds, _even if they swap bodies I can't tell the difference,_ he thought to himself.

"We should head to the guild," said Pantherlily, tearing his eyes off what he didn't want to believe was his old body, _so small..._ he shook his head to banish the thought.

 "And find Makarov to see if he can help, sounds like a plan."said Charle, as she picked up a silent Wendy and put her over one shoulder.

"Fine by me." smiled Natsu with a genuine Cheshire cat smile.  "Happy, how about you?" there was silence, "Happy?"

Natsu sniffed around a bit and discovered ironically his nose wasn't as sharp now he was a cat. He was about to call him again when a loud shriek erupted from the bathroom, belonging to the currently missing used-to-be exceed.

"Happy, what's wrong?!" Natsu scrambled to the bathroom where he heard his buddy's cry, half running, half flying shakily, mixed in with a bit of undignified crawling. "Are you alright?!" 

Behind the door was Happy, stark naked in front of a steaming bath with a look of complete shock plastered on his fair skinned face. "What? Why did you scream?" Natsu caught his breath and searched the room, he didn't see anything wrong.

"I... I didn't want to see your junk!" Happy's face reddened as he felt he had just crossed a boundary that he could never uncross.

"Then don't undress yourself! I mean, don't undress me! I mean... this is getting complicated." If it were possible, steam would be puffing out of Natsu's pointy exceed ears at that moment.

"Just get dressed you useless cat!" shouted Gajeel, pausing afterwards to ponder over whether it was still correct to call Happy a cat since he now inhabited Natsu. And furthered his thoughts on whether it was an insult to himself since he too, was now a cat. But these frivolous wonderings were all abandoned when he realised he didn't actually give a shit.

And so off they went all together, looking like an incredibly odd bunch, to try and find Master Makarov and figure out what the hell they were meant to do next. 


	2. Hitting the Town

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After getting information from Mira, we follow our bunch on the beginning of their adventure, and an encounter with a certain red-head leads to mayhem.

Wendy was adapting to her new body, and, in fact, had acquired a taste for gracefully fluttering through the air. She could feel the wind tickling her feathers as she bobbed to and fro to the whimsical flow of the mid-afternoon breeze. Natsu however, was floundering like a rather blubbery fish. His flight pattern was comprised of sharp zigzags in any and all directions, bumping into every possible obstacle.

“For the love of god just walk, would’ya?” proposed a flustered Gajeel, after having been slapped by Natsu’s tail one too many times.

“I don’t know why I’m the only one who can’t get the hang of this!” he moaned.

I could think of a few reasons, Gajeel sighed inwardly, and flew through the guild doors.

“Hey, Mira!” shouted Natsu. Mirajane looked at him from behind the counter with sympathetic eyes as he bumped his head on the top of the doorframe. After a few goes, and a few bruises, he managed to make it through.

“Hello Happy,” she smiled, “what the matter?”

“That’s not Happy,” said Charle, looking at the blue exceed “it’s Natsu.”

Mira’s eyes widened, her mouth forming a small ‘oh’.

“And I’m Charle, not Wendy.” She ran a tired hand through her long blue hair.

“Pantherlily, I’m guessing that’s you.” Mira had walked closer to Gajeel’s body, inspecting it on tiptoe, as if trying to find some anomaly resulting from the change. His cheeks reddened slightly, as he took a step back and cleared his throat, “Yes, it’s me.”

“We’re looking for Gramps,” Natsu chirped “have you seen him?” He was trying to find his balance in the air, but tumbled to the floor as a heap of feathers and fur.

“He’s not at the guild right now… I think he said he had a meeting today; something about the damages Fairy Tail’s done to the town.” She said sheepishly.

Most of them seemed unfazed by this; damages came with the job, although some caused more damage than others. In fact, some should be labeled with the terms ‘natural’ and ‘disaster’. Natsu sneezed.

“He didn’t leave too long ago, if you hurry you should find him in Magnolia.”

Laxus walked into the guild at that point, took one haggard look, and walked out again. His thoughts journeyed from ‘this looks suspicious’, to ‘I definitely do not want to know.’ Furrowing his brow disdainfully on the way out, his dark, fur-lined coat swished dramatically with his exit.

“I wonder what that was about.” said Happy.

“Don’t mind him, he’s brooding as per usual.” brooded Natsu.

“We’re to get a move on if we want to catch Master Makarov.” Charle pointed out, a saddened Panther then caught her eye, “Pantherlily, really, you’re not that small. Quite average sized, I assure you.” He roused himself from staring at his old body, disheartened. “Average?” he quizzed worriedly. Charle was already ushering them out, trying to keep calm.

The wayward lot trudged out, saying a fond farewell to Mira, who felt as if a whirlwind has just passed through.

Of course, it didn’t take long for chaos to find them once again.

It arrived in the form of Erza Scarlet. They were walking straight past Kardia Cathedral when the collision occurred. It was literally a collision, involving a fumbling-bumbling, almost-flying Natsu and Fairy Tail’s redheaded S-Class Mage.

“Ooh my bad, didn’t see you there!” chuckled Natsu.

“Happy, you seem… different.” she frowned, and felt a sudden memory pop into her mind. “Don’t tell me it happened again.” She looked up at what she once thought was Happy.

“Personally speaking this is my first time experiencing a body swap.” Charle sighed.”So this is a recurring theme I gather?”

The situation was explained, in which once upon a time the entire guild switched bodies. And if Happy hadn’t been too busy requipping into Erza’s ‘kawaii’ outfits (the blue swimsuit was his favourite) he would’ve picked Lucy and Gray as the funniest swap. Especially the part where she was drooling ice cubes whilst he was trying to strip. Although, Natsu and Loke made quite a spectacle...

“There’s always something.” smiled Wendy, who was growing very accustomed to the tumultuous happenings she was often subjected to.

“But this time it’s different,” said Natsu, “we didn’t read any wibbly wobbly, bibbidi bobbidi witchy stuff. We just ‘changed’ randomly.” His hands flailed around to accompany the ‘wibbly wobbly witchy stuff’, making him lose balance and fall on Pantherlily’s head.

Pantherlily, who was tired of this whole mess, couldn’t hold back and decided he would punch him, _just once,_ he thought. As of such, a bluish white blob was sent flying into the side of the cathedral. The exceed peeled himself off the building, and put a hand out to steady the spinning wold around him. Once things were still, he shot a mean look at the offending Pantherlily.

“What was that for?!” Natsu protested, theatrically brushing bits of rubble off his wings to intimidate his opponent.

“You needed to calm down. You still do.” said Pantherlily in a monotone voice.

“I was calm! But you didn’t need to hit me so hard!” He smashed his palm against one ear, and a piece of rubble plopped out of the other. Natsu now realized that although Happy had impressive durability, he was relatively weak, and an Iron Dragon Slayer's Iron Dragon’s Club wasn’t to be taken lightly. In form of retaliation, he used Max Speed Attack but miscalculated and hit Miss Scarlet in the back of the head.

Happy, who was watching from the sidelines, wondered if he should be worried about his body and what afflictions Erza may feel compelled to execute upon it. He paled at the thought of her ire being taken out on his little blue self.

The redhead was stock still, a mix of anger and disbelief on her face. “You’re in for it now, Salamander!” Erza suddenly jumped into action, choosing her Heaven’s Wheel Armor, "Dance, My Blades!" she battlecried.

In a split second over two hundred glinting swords were swiftly blazing towards Natsu, circling round Erza, and crashing into Kardia Cathedral. Happy felt a cold sweat emerging on his brow, his eyes glazing over in worry.

Gajeel, not wanting to miss out on the opportunity, transformed into Battle Mode and started sparring with Pantherlily, who he himself started experimenting with different attacks. He seemed incredibly pleased with saying “Iron Dragon's Lance: Demon Logs!” as an oversized, grey metal spearhead fused with his right arm. They were truly a pair.

During this sequence Wendy and Charle felt they had earned the right to flee, and had gone to the nearest café (not too close, mind you).

Amidst the chaos and flying weapons, Lucy and Gray appeared on the scene, her looking tiredly amused and him just looking tired.

“Oi Gray, help me out will ya?” beamed Natsu, who was still dodging Erza’s many, many swords.

“Lucy!!” whined Happy, giving her a bear hug, “Erza’s gonna destroy my body!!” Lucy, who hadn’t quite caught onto the situation, blushed madly at the Dragon Slayer who had just wrapped himself around her.

“Get off me Natsu!” she squirmed.

“We’re going to have to explain this every single time, aren’t we?” said Pantherlily dryly; he was breathing hard from the fight, as was his sparring buddy.

"Explain what?" Lucy cocked her head to one side.

“We’re looking for Master Makarov,” Charle had come back from a soothing chamomile tea, though its effects were wearing off fast around this lot.

“Have you seen him?” asked Wendy, trailing behind her.

“Yeah, we just passed him at the station. He’s on his way to a meeting with the council, something about Fairy Tail’s damage costs.” said Gray, his gaze slowly drifting towards the cathedral. It currently looked like a piece of crumbling cheese that had been pierced by very large, very sharp toothpicks. “No idea why they would be worried about that though.” his sarcasm was fully pronounced.

“Shut up, Ice Princess, just help me already would ya?” Natsu avoided the last of Erza’s swords, she had suddenly stopped fighting and she now stared at the battered face of Kardia Cathedral.

“I think this is the oldest building in Magnolia.” she said quietly, realization dawning upon her.

“Wait, who are you calling a Princess you retard?!”

“Shut it, Stripper!”

“Flame Brain!”

They glared at one another, Natsu pressing his forehead against Gray’s, who was seemingly unfazed by the fact that the Salamander was now Happy-shaped.

“Wait, he’s at Magnolia Station?” asked Gajeel.

“Yes, his train leaves in about 10 minutes.” Lucy replied.

They dropped everything as the exceeds carried their dragon slayers at top speed, trying to get to the other side of town before it was too late.

Lucy and Gray were then left to deal with the cathedral managers, who looked less than pleased with the new fixtures on their front wall.

 

**POV Lucy**

 

Wow, that was a tiring job. I stretched my back, and started taking off my shoes. "I'm home." I said, hoping somehow my little house would hear me. 

The trip with Gray went well, but we sure do have to deal with some unusual requests. This time it was an old man, who wanted us to put on a magic show for his grandchildren. I mean, there's nothing wrong with that, but the poster up at the guild made it sound slightly more important, using words like 'skilled mages' and 'public acclaim'. Nevertheless upon arrival Gray and I created 'Zodiac's on ice : for one night only!', involving Taurus juggling ice blocks, Scorpio figure skating with Aquarius, and other ice related activities. Gray begrudgingly made some small ice sculptures for the kids, and we finished it off with soft snowfall and a lullaby from Lyra; the children happily dozed off soon enough. All in all it was a long journey, but worth the money and the fun experience. 

Now, time for a relaxing bath... I got everything ready, and contemplated which soaps I fancied using, the rose scented one? Maybe I'll go for cherry blossom... That shade of pink always make me happy for some reason.

I then wandered into my bathroom, almost not noticing the pair of men's boxers on my floor. 

 

**POV Happy**

 

We were rushing to get to the station on time, and I could feel the wind breezing past me freely. Natsu was holding on to my back, carrying me at top speed. Unfortunately his top speed was embarrassingly slow (not to mention bumpy), but never-mind. I currently had more pressing matters at hand, feeling a faint breeze go up my trouser leg...


	3. Trouble at the train station

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Arriving at Magnolia Station, they try to seek advice from their unpredictable master.

Wendy and Charle were the first to arrive at Magnolia Station, followed swiftly by Gajeel and Pantherlily. The other two were nowhere to be found, “I think he smashed Happy into a shop a few streets back” said the Iron Dragon Slayer. _Figures_ , they all thought in unison.

Indeed Natsu was putting up a good fight, but poor Happy was on the receiving end of his efforts. “Natsu, what if I use some flames to propel us forwards?” He had grazes on his face, and was wiping a thick trail of blood from his lip. “I don’t know how many more of your crash landings I can survive.” Happy added with a chuckle.

“Okay, let’s try it!” Natsu was deep in concentration, and put all his might into the next attempt. Thus far they had been wobbling through the skies, erratically banking one way or the other, consequently smashing into everything. This time Natsu made a point of straightening his wings, facing forwards with determination, “Let's go, Happy!”

Happy felt power course through his palms, and with a battle cry they surged forwards like a firework, blazing through the air. “It’s actually working!” smiled an incredulous Happy, who boosted the flames enthusiastically. But it worked all too well, and they overshot the station.

Gajeel looked up and could’ve sworn he saw a fireball shoot through the sky. He dismissed it immediately, saying “I don’t see Makarov."

They all searched the area, not finding any sign of their guild master.

“Is everything alright, Fairies?”

The group felt a chill run down their spine, as Master Makarov seemed to apparate behind them.

“Master! Wha- How did you? Oh never mind,” said Charle hurriedly, her disheveled blue hair making her look slightly manic “we’re sorry to barge in like this but we’ve encountered a problem.”

“So it seems,” he couldn’t help smiling “what can I do for you, Charle?”

Pantherlily was relieved they didn’t have to re-explain their embarrassing situation for the umpteenth time in one day.

“Makarov,” said Gajeel “please tell me you can fix this.” he gestured towards his exceed body.

A train had just pulled up at the dock, and slowly groaned to a halt. The guild master put his hands behind his back and said, “Ah, this is my train, I’m afraid I can’t help, but good luck!” Makarov cheerily walked through the doors as they brusquely closed behind him. They saw his small silhouette through the glass window pane, waving serenely. The train puffed a sign, and slowly chugged out of the station.

His guild members then proceeded to look infinitely flabbergasted at how unhelpful their master was, watching the train glide away into the distance.

Once the train was nothing but a thin line in the distance, Gajeel let rip,“I can’t believe that geezer!” he fumed.

“We’ll figure something out,” Wendy comforted him, putting a paw on his furry back.

Then, out of nowhere, they could hear their two lost guild-mates screaming; while searching for the source one of their members looked up and saw something suspicious.

“Oi, isn't that a fireball?” Pantherlily was looking towards the horizon. But it was actually a flaming Happy and Natsu, and they were headed directly for Makarov’s train.

“HAPPY” screamed Natsu who was desperately endeavouring to fly upwards, sideways and anywhere there wasn't a huge train, “STOP THE FLAMES BUDDY!!”

“I'M TRYING!!” Happy exclaimed, panicked by the ever growing form of a steam train. It got closer and closer until the two entities met, and so they fell once more, crashing and shouting right through a window and into Master Makarov’s unsuspecting lap.

“Oh, Gramps!” Natsu had a stupid serendipitous grin on his feline face, lying on top of Makarov “we were just looking for you!”

The three of them were toppled over on the soft red seats in the train, with pieces of glass shattered everywhere.

“Happy, get your foot out of my face!” Makarov was indignant. “What the hell do you brats think you’re doing?!”

Happy quickly sat up straight, and bashfully said “I’m sorry.”

“Sorry to bust in like this, but there’s a pro-“

“I’ve already seen your friends, they’re at the station.” Makarov interrupted.

“Oh, so what do we do?” Natsu looked over at Happy, who was greening at the face. “We’ll be off the train soon buddy, don’t worry.” he turned back to Gramps, waiting to hear some advice.

A vein was pulsing on Makarov’s forehead, who was thinking about the irony that these two destroy the train he was taking to a meeting about Fairy Tail’s exorbitant damage costs. He grabbed both of them by the collar and flung them out of the now permanently open window. “Sooner than you think!” he bellowed.

“It may sound weird, but I’m kinda relieved to be off of that thing,” Happy confessed, whilst falling through the air.

Natsu, who despite his failures was getting ever so slightly better at flying, caught him and flew them (very carefully) back to the station. “Oi look! The others are there!”

The so-called others had witnessed the debacle from a distance, and cringed inwardly as the two dopes made their way towards them.

“What on earth did you do?” Charle wailed.

“Well we saw Gramps,” said Happy.

“And he threw us off the train...” finished Natsu.

“So we’re back to square one.” Wendy dismayed.

They all flumped onto the station benches, as thoughts of terror entered their minds.

“What if we stay like this forever?” Gajeel wasn’t helping, and rested his chin on his pad, staring at the stone floor. Wendy timorously put her head in her paws, his words echoing through her mind, _forever, forever... forever.._. tears started brimming.

“No, there has to be someone who can help!” Charle pulled herself toghether, she wasn’t going to give up so easily.

“Oh!” Happy burst out, proud to offer his beloved Charle some help “Levy-chan might know something!” At the mention of her name, Gajeel blushed silently.

Their glumness abated at the prospect of a fresh lead. 

“Good idea!.. But I don’t even know where to start looking for her.” Charle looked up in thought.

“She’d be at the library right about now.” mumbled Gajeel into his paw.

"Whatdya say?" Wendy turned to him, not understanding why his cheeks were so red.

Pantherlily gave him a knowing smile, for their relationship was only just blossoming and no one else knew. “That’s not too far from here, we should make a move.” he said.

Gajeel nodded gratefully towards him, as they all rallied, making their way to find Levy and getting one step closer to cracking this problem.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm hoping to put some Levy/Gajeel cute-awkwardness in the next chapter xD


	4. Study Group

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After being shunned by Makarov, they engage Levy's help at the library. There they discover the unexpected.

“I’ll take a look, just wait a second.” Levy ran her fingers over some books' spines, which were sitting tight in on their shelf, looking for anything that could help their predicament. She climbed up a ladder which lead her to some large, dust-scented, leather bound books. “This" she gestured to the guild members in front of her, "will take some time, it’s not exactly a common condition.” she was maneuvering a big pile of works, the words _Misusages of Magic_ etched into the spines. Precariously she came down, Gajeel’s eyes gently watching; ready to catch her if ever she were to fall (not that he would admit to it).

“But you’ll be able to find something, right?” Wendy urged, realizing she got fidgety when her paws were on solid ground, instead of floating freely in the air. She levitated a few inches off the floor, and immediately felt better, even more so when Levy gave her answer.

“Of course!” Levy smiled while chucking the books on the table, creating a dust cloud. Everyone stood back, trying to avoid the cloud. The blue haired wizard then sat down, put on her gale-force reading glasses, and got to work.

Several minutes passed, and somewhere between the tomes 3 and 4, Jet and Droy wandered in holding drinks. “We got some Holly Soda from 8-Island!” Jet grinned, handing Levy a drink “So how’s it going?”

Levy looked up for a second, “I have an idea for what might’ve happened,” taking a sip of soda, she gave a hardworking sigh, “but I need some more time.”

The next hour was spent intensely reading on Levy’s part, casually chatting on the others’ part, and sneaking quick glances at Levy on Gajeel’s part. The non-reading members of team Shadow Gear also intermittently cheered her on with motivational posters and bouts of "Go Levy go!". 

“Okay, I got it!” she lifted her head from her book, eyes sparking with excitement. They all turned to her expectantly. “From what I’ve understood, you’ve been cursed.”

“C-c-cursed?!” Charle and Wendy exclaimed queasily.

“You were going on a mission near Lake Belbor before this all happened right?” Levy asked, trying to hide the glee she felt of figuring out their problem.

“Uh, yeah we were, I think it was the village just next to it. How’d ya know?” Natsu slurped the last of his third drink. Levy started blushing, her cheeks burning crimson, _Can I tell them it's because Gajeel told me in private? I mean, I'm only confessing to talking to him... that doesn't mean I'm admitting to dating him... But... But..._

“What’s the matter?” Natsu was completely oblivious.

“I-I told her before we left,” Pantherlily awkwardly covered for Gajeel who was childishly pretending not to be a part of it, “so what did you find?” 

“To be honest, I didn’t find much,” Levy regained her composure, “But Lake Belbor has a protective deity, a ‘ _sprit of the lake’_ that has the power to use relatively weak but disruptive magic. And it seems she's had a small history with body swapping...”

“But we didn’t even talk to any spirits!” Happy said, confused.

“So we managed to annoy someone we never met?” Wendy despaired.

“This is why I don’t do jobs with you guys.” murmured Gajeel under his breath.

“I’m afraid that’s the only thing I could find.” Levy gave them a crestfallen look.

“It’s better than nothing; we should at least go check it out.” Natsu yawned, “But let’s call it a day.”

Happy had started closing his eyes, and was popping in and out of consciousness. A little rivulet of lava was spilling out of the corner of his mouth. It was late in the evening, and everyone was exhausted. Jet and Droy had fallen asleep, leaning against one another, their ‘Go Levy!’ banners resting on their laps.

“Thank you for all your work Levy!”Charle said, who was genuinely happy to be getting somewhere with their problematic situation.

They went their separate ways for the night, Wendy and Charle flew back to the Girl’s Dorm at Fairy Tail; Natsu and Happy almost flew then decided to walk back to their house at the edge of town; and it’s still a mystery where Gajeel and Pantherlily live.

Gajeel however, stayed behind for a while before going home.

“I’m sorry we dumped all this on you.” he said.

“N-n-no don’t worry!” Levy said timidly.

They chatted for a small while, enjoying one another’s company, even though Levy did most of the talking. And a rare moment passed where one blushed, which made the other blush, which made the first blush harder, and so on and so forth until one ( _*cough*_ Gajeel _*cough*_ ) had to turn away or their face would set alight. There also happened to be an uncomfortable instant where Levy instinctively petted him on the head, because of his fluffy state, and the words ‘never do that again’ were spoken softly but with authority. Also, those two moments may or may not be related.

And so none of them knew what was awaiting them in the morning, although they all fell asleep hoping that they would be back to normal when they woke up.

They weren’t.

“Morning guys.” said a groggy, sleep ridden Natsu, who was resting on Happy’s nest of pink hair. They hadn’t dared make Natsu fly over to the station. “I guess we’re still one another then.” he said, his brain still muddled by slumber.

“Good morning!” Miss Marvell gave them an amused smile, trying not to laugh when Natsu slunk off Happy’s head and flopped to the ground, as blue blobs do tend to flop.

Gajeel arrived along with Pantherlily, and grunted a simple hello.

“Well we’re all here now, therefore, let’s get going!” Charle was trying her best to be positive.

Thus they chugged away, searching for their panacea, and a stern chat with Belbor’s spirit of the Lake.


	5. Cat-astrophe

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In this chapter : I make a single pun. Or two puns if the title counts, which it really shouldn't.  
> They make their way to Berubo, and, of course, things go wrong.

All in all, yesterday had been a long day, not to mention one incredibly awkward night not daring to change clothes for risk of seeing things that may never be un-seen; and now they were right back at  the train station, travelling to where it all began.

It was called the village of Berubo, named so because it was situated in close range to Lakes Belbor and Rubo, but mostly because the founder of the village thought ‘ _eh, sounds good enough to me'_. Henceforth this tucked away village was given its name and seven peaceful, pleasant, and amicable generations later it had its first encounter with Fairy Tail and, of course, everything would change.

Following an eventful few days in the care – the word _care_ being used very lightly - of our Fairies, the village of Berubo had uncovered the ruffian who had been filling doorsteps with fish. It’s now known that this dastardly villain was a rare specimen, who called himself Kraken, despite being somewhat average in size (around the same dimensions as Pantherlily, including tail - naturally). This super evolved, amphibious-to-a-certain-degree fish, was set free from the manhandling grips of Fairy Tail’s bluest member Happy, after the villagers saw past its cold, glassy eyes and opened up to the sole - I mean soul – within Kraken. And so they let him go free, but regrettably this wasn’t to be the end of Kraken’s story.

Unbeknownst to the Beruborians, Fairy Tail was already on their way back for a second round.

“How long is the train ride again?” Happy had a whole row of seats to himself, lying opposite Gajeel and Pantherlily; the breakfast muffin in his hand that Charle had made was taunting him. He was counting every woozy second, hoping a temporal phenomenon would occur in which they were sent flying into the future, a future in which they had just got off this train. It was nice to dream. And that entertaining thought took his mind off the nausea brewing in his stomach. He heard Gajeel sigh.

“It’s as long as I told you five minutes ago, minus five minutes.” Gajeel’s voice droned, looking nonchalantly out the window, having slight sympathy for the newly christened dragon slayer. _I’m so glad that’s not me right now_ , he thought, smiling quietly to himself.

“What are you so smug about?” A suffering Pantherlily had read his mind and was shooting daggers right at him or at least, at one of the several versions of him he could make out through the motion-sick haze. The kaleidoscope of Gajeels ignored his comment out of respect, but couldn’t help sneaking in a “Man, aren’t trains bumpy.” just for safe measure. Pantherlily gagged, putting his muffin down on the seat.

“We still have two hours left…” mumbled the now ironically named Happy.

“Don’t remind me!” Pantherlily had grabbed his head and was fervently crushing his pink haired skull between his iron-clad knuckles.

“Get off, you big bully!” he took in a deep breath and, with some difficulty, faced his opponent, “Fire Dragon’s Roa-“ Charle leaned over and quickly slapped her hand over Happy’s mouth, accidentally sending a gust of Sky Dragon Slayer wind down his throat and making him choke.

“I’m sorry Happy but we’ve done enough damage as it is!” Charle rationalized, moving back towards her seat, but Happy was too busy gasping for air to feel indignant.

“What damage?” Natsu pried, raising his eyes from his golden muffin (not a euphemism).

“You’re not seriously asking that, are you?” the look on Gajeel’s face was a blend of admiration, disbelief and annoyance. The newbie exceed was, as always, unconcerned by what he was talking about.

“Well, whatever,” he grinned, changing the subject, “I don’t know about you, but I’m starting to see trains in a new, non-queasy light.” Natsu scarfed his breakfast, and shuffled back in his seat to take a self-indulgent cat nap.

“One hour and fifty-seven minutes…” Happy had finished choking, and resumed the tedious countdown to their arrival, burying his chin in his scarf.

“I swear to god if you continue, I _will_ skewer you with a lance.” Pantherlily was an off-white color, and not in the mood to be messed with. Noticing this, Happy prolonged his countdown in his head; not bothering to hide his feeling mighty sorry for himself.

“I wonder why you don’t get motion sickness, Wendy.” mused Natsu, already dozing off slightly. Wendy had wondered this herself, and it was something that troubled her mind. Charle gave her a comforting smile, confident that her beautiful Dragon Slayer would one day soon unlock her true powers and all that came with it. Wendy gave her a hopeful grin, and rested her head in her lap.

“It’s not exactly something you should wish for so don’t jinx her, Salamander.” Gajeel slunk into his seat, also feeling the need to close his eyes.

“Jinxes, curses, it’s all happening now, isn’t it?” said a sulking, deflated Happy.

“Are you pouting?” Natsu simpered, imitating his whiney voice.

“Shut up, right now I’m waaaay stronger than you are!” Happy retorted, a smile reaching his lips. “Fire Drago-“

“You wish,” Natsu cut him short and let out a warm laugh, “get some rest buddy.”

Happy sighed, “One hour and-“

Pantherlily, staying relatively true to his word, bashed the moping Happy on the head, effectively knocking him out.

“It was for the best.” he declared, solemnly.

The rest of the train journey went by smoothly, but smooth in the general sense, meaning it was as good as it would get for this dysfunctional group.

And so one hour and fifty-five minutes later, Happy was bounding, _nay,_ leaping off the train, goofily grinning and proclaiming his freedom, “No more! No more!” he vociferated, elated to be able to scrape his shoes on solid ground. He turned to Natsu, who was just floating off the train, and grasped his shoulders with a profound look in his eye. “I finally understand.” He gave him a long hug, “Motion sickness hella sucks.” Natsu’s feathers tickled his nose, the tickling sensation turning into itching.

“Are you planning on standing there all day?” Gajeel was stuck behind them, and was overlooking this tear jerking scene. Without a second’s hesitation, deemed it completely ridiculous. Happy moved out the way, still clutching on to Natsu, the itching in his nose growing into a substantial sneeze.

“Aaaaa-“

Natsu cautiously moved back a bit, having a bad feeling and not wanting to get his own flames (and snot) thrown into his face.

“AAAAAAAH” Happy was possessed, the sneeze taking over his entire body.

Pantherlily was standing on the dock, and speedily assessed the situation. He saw Natsu looking apprehensive, Happy jerking his head back, the same Happy who wanted to release a fire dragon's roar in a train, and a train right next to the two of them. He took the best course of action, simultaneously flinging himself at Happy, and creating a primitive iron shield to cover the fool’s nose and mouth. Thankfully he latched on to the fire dragon slayer in time, and he stopped him from transforming the train into molten lava; sadly he sneezed with such force they were propelled backwards into an unsuspecting pillar, subsequently breaking it and creating a mist of plaster and concrete.

"CHOOOO!" Happy sternuated, proceeding to then sniffle innocently.

“Only _you_ could turn a harmless sneeze into a vehicle of fiery doom!” Pantherlily boomed in between coughs, after having taken most of the damage.  Happy wiped away some of the lava that had come out of his nose, looking at the thick iron shield that had just detached from Pantherlily’s arm. It was lying pitifully on the ground, still smoking, and glowing red in the center. Hovering above it was a relieved, blue exceed.

“Oh my god that was close,” Natsu gushed, and flew towards Pantherlily, “you saved my life!!!”  He started rubbing his cheek against his friend’s, tying his paws around his neck, “Thank you thank you thank you thank you!” he had tears in his eyes, "Happy," he turned to face him ",you need to learn to control the flames."

“Don’t you think you’re being a bit over-emotional?” Pantherlily wore an aggravated expression, which more than suited Gajeel’s face, moving away from the crazy one.

"Well even the toughest mage would quiver at the sight of my fiery doom." he joked, "And I got hit by Erza not long ago, and although you can't see it, I have blue bruises everywhere."

The Fairies let loose a few chuckles while Natsu prodded himself in order to locate his bruises.  

"Oi, you!" A voice barked in the distance.

A station guard was energetically running their way, looking furious and shouting some things that are best not to be repeated.

"Is he talking to us?" Happy prayed he wasn't.

"You with the pink hair!" The guard roared, only a few meters away from them. 

“We don’t have time for this, just run!” Charle said guilitly, leaving a trail of broken, well, _everything,_ in their wake. But the guard had called for back-up and in the blink of an eye they were all surrounded. A moment of frenzy took over Charle, quite possibly due to stress, “Sky Dragon’s - !!” she roared, her hands glowing with power; the pressure in the air was growing as she lifted her arms back gracefully. “- Wing Attack!!!” she yelled, ribbons of air swirling, twisting around her and lashing towards the now terrified enemy.

It was over in under a second; eight guards were K.O, lying frazzled on the ground like sacks of potatoes.

“Oh my god.” she kept looking down at her hands, then up at what she had done.

“Awesome!!” Natsu was quite literally in awe, and burst out laughing.

Gajeel and Pantherlily calmly and vigilantly increased the distance separating them from the pissed of lady; and Happy and Wendy had to lift their jaws off the ground.

“A-are you feeling okay?” Wendy swooshed towards her and patted her on the shoulders, smiling nervously as one would smile at a toddler who just threw up on a toff’s Persian carpet. She nodded silently, still staring at the guards.

“We should really get going, as in, _right now._ ” Happy had lifted his head up, and was looking at a new batch of station guards heading in their direction.

It was on average a forty-five minute trek to Berubo (even if you could fly), the path crossing through difficult terrain and a few very steep inclines; they made it in under twenty.


	6. Never a Dull Moment

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Still on their way to the village of Berubo, they pull through a few scrapes only to realise the day is far from over.

“I think we lost them going up the cliff side.” Natsu was panting, hands grasping his knees. He was referring to the group of ten or so station guards that were chasing them ever since their disaster that the train station. Since then they had flown insanely fast, and had arrived at a large plain where the ground leveled out, a slope awaiting a small way away.

“I didn’t know someone could be so angry while throwing rocks,” Wendy marveled, also breathing heavily “I thought if it went any further he’d bust an artery.” Charle was sat on the ground, her gaze fixated on a trail of ants, “They look so peaceful…” she sighed, Wendy gently stroked her hair.

“Let’s just be thankful Natsu didn’t impale me on a jagged rock.” Happy wiped some worried sweat off his brow, feeling relieved.

“Don’t’ speak too soon, we’ve still got one last slope to go.” Natsu joked, he looked around then said “Hey, does anyone know where Gajeel and Pantherlily are?” they all looked around, apart from Charle who was having an internal crisis, and spotted two figures in the distance.

“They seem to be saying something, can you guys make it out?”

“It looks like they’re waving hello.” Happy waved back, disconcerted.

Then they all heard what they were saying, and it was “Run!!!”

Out of nowhere a group of three dozen station guards appeared some twenty meters behind them, and they were all livid. The two Fairy late comers caught up and they dashed away as fast as possible, “What the hell happened?!” Natsu shouted, carrying Happy as straight and as fast as he could “There were only ten of them before, they’ve multiplied like germs!!”

“We were at the back," Gajeel wheezed, "and out of nowhere this new bunch of guards appears!” he hollered, his voice getting lost in the wind. “One of those pricks threw a rock and hit me on the head.” he fumed, “So we tried to fight back, but I was already exhausted from the flying.”

“So we ran instead.” Pantherlily finished, crossing his arms. "I realize now we probably shouldn't have lead them to the group." he faced forward, deflecting responsibility.

It was a total stroke of bad luck that they had unwittingly arrived smack bang in the middle of the annual Berubo Station Guard Training Camp; and that the camp organizer thought that capturing ‘bad guys’ would be the perfect opportunity for the trainees. Thus the aforementioned trainees joined up with the already engaged group of fully fledged Station Guards and got down to Fairy exterminating business.

Yells of "Get 'em!" and general "Arrrrrg!" noises were heard in the distance.

“Wait we can’t just lead them to the village!” Charle yelled, getting her thoughts together.

“Then we’ll fight; with three dragon slayers we should be fine!” Happy smiled lackadaisically.

And that was that, a battle ensued on the slope, not five minutes away from Berubo. The exceeds dropped their partners, and took a minute to rest. The partners on the other hand, well they got to work with extreme gusto

“I’m really sorry but we can’t have any more interruptions!” Charle cringed, talking to the guards in the distance, “ _Power of the stout arms that tears heaven... ARMS_!” a mystical blue disk appeared above Charle’s raised palm, as the ground beneath their feet was illuminated by colors. They could feel power surging through them, as their offense skyrocketed.

“You can use Vernier alongside Arms!” Wendy called from the sidelines.

“Okay! _Fast wind that run the heaven... VERNIER_.” The three of them were surrounded by aura, enhancing their speed. By the time the guards were within range, they didn’t know what hit them.

“Iron Dragon’s Hard Fist!” Pantherlily had a green aura, covered in iron scales he successively knocked out nine guards.

“”Fire Dragon’s-“ Happy felt exhilarated wearing his red aura, and could sense the flames bubbling up from his fingertips, “- Brilliant Flame!!” he grinned from ear to ear, obviously loving the gigantic fireball shooting from his joined hands. He did in ten guards, and consequentially set a tuft of Pantherlily’s hair on fire “Oi, watch it airhead!” he patted the flames out grumpily.

“Shattering Light!” Charle efficiently dealt the finishing blow, ending all the guards at once, “SKY DRILL!”, she raised her arms as a wind barrier formed around them, and with a swift movement the barrier contracted around their opponents, sending them flying far, far away. She was grinning during the whole thing.

Once the battle had ended, our Fairies stopped for a second, and looked at one another in bewilderment and pride.

“I say Charle wins!” Natsu laughed, rubbing the back of his blue head.

“Well they won’t be bothering us anytime soon, that's for sure.” Gajeel looked at her, a smile creeping onto his face.

“We should do this more often,” Happy tried it on, feeling a deep love for his fiery prowess “you know, this whole swapping bodies thing isn’t so bad, maybe we could -’”

“Nope, no way.” they shot him down in unison. They walked on to Berubo.

“Not long to go now,” Wendy had cheered up from seeing Charle finally let loose all her worrying, “I wonder what we’ll find.”

_Not five minutes later, at the entrance to the village of Berubo._

“What the hell did we just find?!” Gajeel was staring at the village, but had started to doubt his eyes and whether they were actually working or had just spontaneously decided to give him psychedelic visions.

“Thank god,” said Happy “I thought I was the only one seeing it.”

“At this moment, I wish you _were_ the only one.” Charle’s eyes were locked on to the scene before them.

“Berubo’s on fire...” breathed Wendy “Berubo’s on _fire_.” repeated Wendy.

“Oi, don’t just stand there guys!” Natsu ordered, “Happy you suck in the flames;  Pantherlily, isolate the fire so it doesn’t spread further; Charle you need to put it out using your magic. Us three will get people to safety, let’s go!”

“Aye sir!”

“Roger that.”

“Since when did you start using your brain?”

Were three examples of the Fairies reactions to Natsu’s show of courage.

After an hour of intense heroic action, balancing out the karma of annihilating three dozen unsuspecting station guards, the village and it’s 72 inhabitants were all A-OK, despite being semi smoked. Pantherlily patched any fire related holes in their houses with iron sheets, and everyone was happy. Well, not everyone; in fact, barely _anyone._

The villagers had been corralled into a cirlce, and were looking incredibly solemn.

“Hello again, dear friends from Fairy Tail.” a thirteen year old girl had emerged from the crowd of villagers, something about her suggesting experience far beyond her years. “Though it doesn’t appear that way, I’m Doogal Gartfast.”

“The village head?!” Happy was agog.

“He’s inside a teenage girl?!” Charle said loudly, confused.

“You might want to rephrase that.” Gajeel stared at her with a flat look in his eyes, but she still didn’t get it. With a sigh he continued, “So all of you were switched too, huh?”

“Yes, I’m afraid so.” Gartfast had a sullen look on her face.

Berubo experienced a body swap at exactly the same time our Fairies did, which wasn’t a coincidence by any means. And although it was a tough feat, they managed to deal with it even worse than the young mages. The village fell into chaos after the swaps were terribly ill timed; cheating spouses were discovered _in media res_ , which lead to people taking the opportunity to set things on fire. Secret recipes for the annual Pie Powerhouse Competition were stolen, which also lead to people taking the opportunity to set things on fire. Children were swapped into parents, which was such a shock that once again it lead to people taking the opportunity to set things on fire. After one literally blazing morning, Berubo’s chances of survival were at an all time low, and would’ve perished altogether if it weren’t for the Fairies.

“You are our saviors, and we’re forever in your debt.” Doogal smiled warmly, a streak of black charcoal on her rosy cheek. “Let us tell you what we know; the fish – Kraken, as he likes to be called – we think he has stopped coming to the village. He left us a final message late last night, written by means of lining up fish head to tail."

"What did the message say?" Wendy asked.

"It read: _Die you fools.”_ Gartfast shook his head disapprovingly. 

“That’s fairly explicit, so it’s fair to say you won’t be seeing him again?” Charle asked.

Gartfast nodded, “I would think so. But rumor has it he lives in Lake Belbor, which is just ten minutes East of here.”

“I guess I know where we’re going next.” Gajeel was feeling psyched after saving the village, but didn’t want to show his do-gooder side so he put on an impassive face. “Well guys, what are we waiting for?”


	7. Fishy Findings

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Previously : The saved Berubo and learned Kraken's whereabouts from the village head, who had swapped bodies with a teenage girl. Thus they set off towards Lake Belbor, where mountains of trouble awaits them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the slow update but school is rough x) Hope you like it! (The next chapter should hopefully be ready sooner than the last- which isn't saying much.) ^^

“I’m not looking forwards to seeing him again…” Wendy recalled their last encounter with the super-fish, and how pretentious and angry a nemesis he was. Granted, Happy was a little too willing to capture him, and the way he licked his lips would be somewhat unsettling for any edible –or non edible, for that matter - being.

Presently they were tranquilly making their way from Berubo to Lake Belbor where the Kraken dwelled. The sky above was a crisp, light blue and birds were rustling past them, swooping around whilst singing a merry tune. The path they were on was primitive, little more than a dirt track, but the green forest that surrounded them was magnificent, a plethora of tones of emerald leaves and rich moss clinging to the decadent color of the tree trunks. And the air was fresh, releasing a reviving scent only nature can harbor. For a few sweet minutes the Fairies walked on calmly, basking in the dappled sunlight. “Then again, maybe he’ll see reason, and we can all go back to normal.” she gave a charming feline smile as they walked purposefully towards the Lake.

******************

“Go to hell you dumb imps!” Kraken huffed, refusing to get out of the water.

“I take back what I said,” Wendy corrected. It had taken them all of two seconds to spot Kraken once they got to Lake Belbor, for he was lying on the grass just next to it dozing peacefully. Our rowdy lot woke him up by accident – involving Happy shouting “Fish!” - and he immediately jumped into the lake to hide.

“We could just jump in and snatch him.” Natsu suggested.

“You want to enter in a swimming race with a fish?” Gajeel scoffed.

“What about using magic?” Happy said eagerly, “I could evaporate the entire thing!”

“That’d take too long, and I don’t know how the villagers would feel about you depleting their food and water supply.” Charle reasoned.

“Well what do _you_ think we should do?!” The Happy and Natsu duo exclaimed.

“Wait…I have an idea;” Natsu whispered urgently, you could almost see a light bulb flashing above his head, “play along.” The used-to-be dragon slayer now turned mad strategist, stretched his limbs and popped his knuckles in preparation. The others watched expectantly, having no idea what kind of plan he had in mind.

“OH HOW KRAKEN WAS MAGNIFICENT,” Natsu did his best to sound sincere, “SO MAGESTIC, REGAL, EVEN.” He turned his back to the water, shouting over his shoulder.

“The last time I saw him,” he looked up to the sky melodramatically, eyebrows scrunched, “I knew I was in the presence of a grand being.” There was a pause for effect, as the rest of the Fairies were dumbfounded by what was happening. “Alas the creature I see before me has none of that. The creature I see _cowering_ before me is a mere shadow of the fish I once admired.”

Kraken slowly raised his glassy eyes above the water, intrigued. Pantherlily caught on to what his guild-mate was doing; and regardless of thinking his methods were incredibly unorthodox, he joined in nonetheless. “You’re right.” Pantherlily sighed; Kraken quickly turned his head in shock, as did the remaining guild members “I knew Kraken had all the qualities of a great hero. He was so full of dignity, and a _je ne sais quoi_ that I revered deeply.”

Kraken lifted himself further out of the water, trying to hold in the need to prove himself despite not entirely understanding the situation. _What on god’s earth is going on?_ the fish wondered, swimming further towards them.

At last, the rest of the group understood,

“What terrible thing could have happened, that affected our sweet Kraken so?” Charle raised a feminine hand to her forehead in dismay.

 _Nothing happened, shut up,_ thought Kraken touchily.

“He looked so tasty,” Happy reminisced then, realizing he wasn’t quite playing the part “but now he looks like he’d taste of nothing but emptiness.” he said, making up for the slight slip up.

“Nothing happened you jackasses!” Kraken turned beet red, putting one outraged fin assertively on the lakeside, and even more so when the group totally ignored him.

“Oh yeah,” Gajeel performed awkwardly “he was… one cool guy.”

Pantherlily shot a discreet but efficient glare at him, as Gajeel raised his paws in defense and surrender. _The cat just can’t act,_ thought Pantherlily judgmentally.

“If only I could see that face one more time! He could reassure me that my suspicions were ill founded, that these heinous rumors are no more than mere jealous speculation.” Natsu layered it on with a tragic note, “But the fish I once knew is no more. We should go, coming here was a waste.” With that they all walked away, very, very slowly, waiting for the hammer to fall. “I don’t know if this’ll work.” Wendy whispered subtly.

But by sheer - and incredibly convenient – miracle, the super-fish naively fell for the bait, not being able to hold it in anymore, “I’m here!” he cried, “I’m still the mighty Kraken!! Do not look down on me, how dare you?!” He got out of the lake, and skidded across the grass towards their turned backs, “Face me, you cowards!”

The air changed suddenly.

“With pleasure,” Happy smirked, “it’s snack time!” He turned and did a running jump towards a stunned Kraken, pinning him to the ground with both hands. Before he even had time to react, the interrogation started.

“The only link we have between the spirit of the Lake and us is _you._ ” Natsu menaced.

“When Doogal told us you lived here, it was the only option, I’m afraid.” Wendy said guiltily, “Happy ease up a bit, don’t you think?”

“Aye sir…” he reluctantly lifted some of his weight off the paralyzed Kraken.

“So this spirit, whoever she is –“

“Her name is Lady Viviane.” Kraken said, squinting at the brightness of the sky, dark silhouettes looming over him.

“Fine, this _Viviane,_ whoever she is, needs to give us back our bodies - right now.” Pantherlily demanded.

“Who do you think you are?” Kraken sneered, “She’s a busy woman, managing this huge lake. Plus with the Lucky Lake Bash coming up, there’s more things than ever that need tending to.” 

“Lucky Lake -?” Happy repeated.

“Bash; are you mentally deficient? It’s where Lakes Belbor and Rubo have a friendly weekend of competitions. It’s only one week away now, and we _always_ come first.” Even when crushed under a dragon slayer, he managed to hold on to his pride.

“We?” questioned Charle.

“Yes, we of Lake Belbor, but chiefly there’s Lady Viviane and I. Do try to keep up.” He gloated.

“I wouldn’t be so proud if I were in your position.” Gajeel remarked.

“Yes you wou-“

“So what does the spirit have against us?” he interrupted Happy.

“She’s an honest lady, a good and kind spirit; she wouldn’t ever be involved with the likes of you.”

“If that’s true, then who else could have swapped us?” Charle wasn’t buying it, “We were swapped the same day we found you,” Kraken let out a contemptible huff at this, “and now we know you live in the same lake as Lady Viviane – who has a body swapping penchant – and you’re going to say that all that is simply a coincidence?”

“I couldn’t have put it better myself.” he clucked his tongue disparagingly.

“Oh don’t tell me,” said Natsu, “you’ve got a thing for Viviane.” he leered coyly.

“ _Lady_ Viviane! And that’s preposterous!”

“Then why are you trying to keep us away from her?” Happy butted in, his face getting way too close to Kraken’s.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Yeah you do.” He pressed his forehead against Kraken’s, despite fish not quite having foreheads.

“No, I-“

“ **Tell me.** ” he whispered forebodingly.

“I…”

“TELL MEEEEEE” Happy whined, getting impatient, and being in such close proximity to food was making him hungry. Ominous drips of lava came from his mouth and sizzled next to Kraken’s body lying on the ground.

“Okay I’ll tell you -”

“Yay!” Happy’s eyes shone.

“- but only if you get off of me.”

“Sure!” Happy leapt off him, his immature feline curiosity blinding him from the ruse.

“F _ool._ ” Kraken snickered, slapping his fin in his face and turning to jump into the lake once more, “You won’t get me ever again, lying imps!”

The scene went by as if in slow motion, Kraken was gunning for the water, giving his all, pearls of sweat coming off his “forehead”, leaving a reddening, betrayed Happy behind who had one of the most pitiful looks the world had ever seen on his face, and just as he reached the lakeside…

“Sorry what was that?” Pantherlily reproached, “This imp has bad hearing.” he showed off his metalwork by making an instantaneous ornate iron cage for one; some obscenities were muttered by the fish.

“I get the feeling you’re holding in a lot of anger.” Wendy remarked.

“I have issues.” he crossed his fins grumpily.

“You don’t say?” murmured the slapped Happy, a bright red fin print on his cheek.

“I’m seeing a therapist.” _nobody asked you,_ the Fairies sighed inwardly. “It’s going alright, I mean, she’s nice and all but she’s a jellyfish; sometimes I get the feeling she’s a bit of an airhead… like she doesn’t even have a brain, you know?”

“I understand.” Wendy did not understand.

“Let’s just wait for Viviane to get here, if she’s as great as you say she is then we’ll get along just fine.” Gajeel was curious as to how Kraken would react.

Kraken was visibly uncomfortable with this, “I don’t want you anywhere near her.”

“Why not?” Charle chipped in, “We won’t hurt her.” she then thought about this for a second, “We won’t hurt her on purpose.” she reprised.

“Like I’d ever trust you! First you barge in here and try to kill me, then you come back not a day later to torture me!”

“You make it sound worse than it is!” Happy said, putting his hands on his hips.

“Actually it does sound quite bad…” Charle was having doubts, “Maybe we should do this differently?”

But before anyone had the time to process her words, a clearly pissed off spirit was heading their way; ethereal hair blowing in the breeze.

“Oh shit.” someone said.

Her aura was dark; it was a charcoal black that had had the last dregs of color torn from it. No one could move in its presence, they were struck to the core by this impeding figure coming closer and closer, the hem of her dress trailing in the water as she glided across her lake. The ripples she created resonated with a shrill ringing, the pitch getting sharper and louder by the second.

“Cover your ears!” Natsu cried, his paws blocking the sound.

“I can’t hear you, I’m covering my ears!!” Happy replied, who had also wrapped his scarf around his head like a bandage for toothache, taking every measure to save himself from the traumatic sound.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TariellaAiden 101 : How not to end on a cliffhanger.  
> Sorry but I wasn't sure how to end the chapter, bear with me! xD


	8. Lakeside Lunacy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After a harrowing cliffhanger (lol), this chapter picks up straight after the arrival of a mysterious being.

They tried to see through the pain, as clouds blurred the sky and their vision, making it hard to know where Viviane was. They were on their knees, bent over in agony. But the ringing was slowly dying down bit by bit, and with it went her dramatic entrance. Through the remnant reverberations, the Fairies tried to pull themselves together, and heard a voice to their right.  

“- cage made of?!!” Viviane shrieked, pulling desperately at the metal bars of Kraken’s cage.

“Just get out of here Milady, these people will trap you!”

“We will not!” Wendy shouted – partly because she was upset, but also because her hearing was shot - whiskers tensing with indignation.

Viviane turned to her, not having realized her magic had already worn off. She had a particular relationship with magic, as in she could only use one small spell every few days. In exchange for that, her powers grant her the ability to curse others through body swapping, although every time she curses someone she falls violently ill a fortnight later. Kraken had already prepared a month’s supply of medicine, guppy flicks and kelp sweets for her recovery.

“So you're Viviane... WHY ARE YOU WORKING TOGETHER?!” Pantherlily boomed, still covering his ears out of habit. Gajeel patted him on the shoulder lightly, and motioned for him to remove his hands. “Oh.” he said clumsily, not realizing the noise had stopped.

He cleared his throat, composing himself, and said more calmly “Why are you working together?”

“We’ve known one another for a long time, I won’t allow you to hurt him.” Viviane’s blood was boiling, “And I don’t need to justify myself to self satisfied mages, who have nothing better to do than torment my friends!”

“We should let him go.” Charle said, “It’s not ri-“

“If we let him go, he’ll escape, she’ll escape, and we’ll be left with the wrong bodies. He stays in the cage for now.” Natsu declared.

“Fine;” Charle bit back, “but if that’s the case then we should all sit and have a civilized conversation.”

There was a pause as a tender breeze ruffled the grass, everyone lay silent.

“I second the motion.” Gajeel smiled, or at least tried to, plonking himself down to disperse the tension.

“Me too!” Wendy sat down next to him.

One by one they sat to form a circle –apart from Kraken who shook the cage from side to side to waddle in - and it was to be the most awkward circle they would ever experience in their entire lives.

Natsu placed a paw under his chin, and mumbled into his paw pads, “I hope this is over soon, I’m getting hungry.” he heaved a sigh.

“I guess I’ll kick things off,” Wendy forced a smile, “why did you swap us?” she looked over at Viviane with gentle eyes.

Lady Viviane’s transparent body fidgeted on the grass, her hands placed elegantly on her knees. She obviously didn’t feel comfortable responding.

“It was because I asked her to.” Kraken spoke from behind bars.

“Why would you do that?!” Happy cried, “I’ve seen things I _never_ wanted to see because of you!” he thought back to the bathroom incident and shuddered, swiping the unsavory thought from his mind.

“Everything was fine before you imps arrived, but then you ruined everything and tried to have me killed!”

“We took a mission that was on the guild board, _anyone_ could have taken it. You were just unlucky it was us, nothing personal.” Natsu said.

“Nothing personal?” Kraken scoffed, “You mean to say that my death would have been nothing personal?”

“He didn’t mean it that way.” Lady Viviane said, “There’s a balance to everything, a cycle that must be completed.”

“What does that have to do with imps?” Kraken puzzled over her words.

“You’re pretty rude, yknow?” Happy retorted, puffing his cheeks in disdain.

“I dare you to say that again!” Kraken angrily shoved his face against the side of the cage.

“I dare you to say otherwise to all the fish you killed!” Happy yelled, his face turning a complementary color to his hair. “Such a waste of fish…” he muttered condescendingly.

“You don’t know anything about me.” he glared at Happy with a dark look in his eyes.

 “Why _did_ you kill all those fish?” Pantherlily asked, wondering what Kraken’s  motives may have been.

“Nimue.” Viviane sighed, and the Fairies were starting to realize that she and Kraken often answered one another’s questions, “The spirit of Lake Rubo. She’s been causing trouble in our Lake for months now, and although I warned her about repercussions, she continued nonetheless.” The Lady of the Lake took no care to hide her distaste for the rival spirit.

“Continued what?” Natsu turned his attention from a beetle that was crawling across his leg, he flicked it away absentmindedly, and it fell on its back in the center of the circle.

“She was poisoning our Lake.” the beetle moved its thin legs, frantically struggling to righten itself. Viviane leaned forward and lifted it up, letting it cling on to one finger. “Many kind fish died at her hand, so we took action. I’m not proud of it, but sometimes you have to fight fire with fire.”

The insect crawled happily along her hand, as she placed him back on the ground.

“Sounds pretty rough in the fish world.” Pantherlily mused.

“So what does that have to do with us?” Charle toyed nervously with the ends of her silky blue hair.

“I was the one doing the killing.” Kraken crossed his fins. “Then you little imps tried to have me eradicated.”

“We were-“

“Yeah yeah, just doing what you’re told, poor babies.” He huffed, “But you aren’t the only ones with important business to attend to, and I thought I’d teach you a lesson.”

“But you aren’t the one with the body swapping hoodoo.” Happy rested his chin on his palm.

“Which is why he asked me to do it.” Viviane straightened her back, not showing any weakness.

“Why would you agree?” Gajeel stared at Viviane, not seeing her as a confrontational woman.

“Because you’re all horrible, petulant, irresponsible children.” Kraken lay down, resting his back against the iron bars.

In response the fire dragon slayer flicked a little ball of flames at him, aiming it right between Kraken’s flat eyes; but Happy’s skills still weren’t refined enough and he send a hefty fireball in Viviane’s direction instead. The spirit hastily raised her ghostly arms to cover herself, a look of fright displayed on her delicate features.

“Watch out!” Charle shouted, dispersing the ball of fire with a sharp gust of wind. Bits of ember fizzled out to the ground.

“What was that all about?” Gajeel howled, grabbing Happy by the scarf.

 “I knew it!” the fish called them out, “Lady Vivane, get out of here, they’re lunatics!”

“We aren’t going to hurt anyone!” Pantherlily took a step forwards.

“Don’t you dare come any closer!” Vivane menaced.

The iron dragon slayer stopped in his tracks. Natsu spread his wings and floated closer to the spirit,

“Look, we’re sor-“

Tensions had built, reaching the tipping point.

“I said, STOP!” Viviane raised her hands elegantly, and bore a look of intense concentration.

For a moment nobody dared move, nor did they utter a single word, they just looked at one another in astonishment.

 “Uh...Why am I over here?” Natsu puzzled, breaking the silence.

He looked at Viviane but instead of being right in front of her, he was ten steps away.

“You’ve got to be kidding me.” Gajeel rubbed a blue paw on his forehead.

“Wendy?” Charle asked.

“I’m here!” Gajeel’s body responded.

“Not again…” Happy put his head into his black paws.

“This is too confusing.” Pantherlily flicked the end of her tail.

“Charle, you’re me!” Natsu waved his arms, “Use my magic!”

“There's no giving up with you, is there?” Kraken sighed.

“Look, I’ll keep switching your bodies until your heads are spinning, so you should all leave. At once.” The spirit glowered. “I understand that you’re upset, but you need to come to terms with your own mistakes before barging in here demanding answers.”

“Not a chance!”

“Shut up, Pantherlily.”

“That’s not me, it’s Happy.”

“For the love of god I want to go home.”

“Then go!” Kraken’s brain was spinning like a dervish, he didn’t know who was who nor did he care, all he wanted was peace and quiet.

“How can you swap us, turn our lives upside down, and then expect us to leave?” Charle asked, canting her head to the side.

“Yeah!” The rest of the group echoed.

“You had no problem leaving after turning **our** lives turned upside down.”

“What’s that supposed to mean, you damn fish?” Gajeel snarled.

“It means we had a good thing going.” he gesticulated with his fins, “Alright yes, there were issues with Lake Rubo, but we were fixing them; then you came along all guns blazing and ruined it!”

“Ruined what? You were mass murdering fish and creeping the villagers out.” Pantherlily sassed.

“I was settling matters with Lake Rubo, which was never any of your concern, and the villagers were getting free fish!”

“You can’t just shove fish on their doorsteps and expect them to be happy.” Charle reasoned whilst professionally adjusting her plaid scarf, she lifted her gaze back to him with a masterfully chastising look.

“Admittedly that may be true, but I had other things on my mind.”

“So did we when we came on this job!” Happy stated

“Great, we’re all on the same page so why don’t we all calm down?” Wendy rubbed her iron knuckles on the back of her brawny head. That gentile attitude earned her some humored looks, through the stark contrast between her cute, engaging demeanor and Gajeel’s brutish appearance.

“Finally we’re getting somewhere!” Charle grinned, “You thought you weren’t doing any harm, us too.” She sighed, “Now, please, please, change us back.”

Our bunch looked up hopefully towards the beautiful spirit, holding their breath for her reply. Her face showed rare signs of hesitation, as she brushed a lucent strand of hair behind her right ear. Viviane inhaled slowly, preparing herself for the inevitable backlash.

“I…” her gaze flitted many times from the ground up to the anticipatory faces and back down again, “I don’t know how.”

Silence, then as her words dawned upon them, “WHAT?!”

Their faces went pale, eyes wide in shock; nothing was going as planned.

“You’re kidding, right? This is just a joke, to scare us a bit, hey?” Wendy chuckled fanatically, “Right?”

Viviane played with her fingers nervously, not wanting to lay on any more bad news, but by refusing to comment she gave away her answer either way.

The Fairies fell to the ground rigidly, dread broadcasted loud and clear on their mugs. Indeed, as Pantherlily was thinking right at that moment, they seemed to be in deep shit.


	9. Unexpected Friends

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After a devastating blow in the last chapter, they rally their spirits and try to find a way to get their bodies back. How will things turn out?

"Okay!" Natsu clenched his fists, "We won't let this get to us, right guys?" 

His smile persevered, though his camaraderie fell upon deaf ears; the Fairies were wavering. Kraken puffed out a gentle sigh, _why are things never simple?_  

"For the love of Fish, this is a theme with you imps, isn't it."  

He said it in a joking tone, but the Fairies weren't having it.

"Shut up! You don't get to say anything." Happy protested, a growl lurking in the back of his throat. 

"Please don't start shouting everyone, this is all my fault," Viviane stood stoically, her pearlescent skin reflecting the sunlight around her, the air glistening with her rosy breath, "if you want to blame someone, then blame me." 

"I could never blame you for anything." Kraken lowered his head, not wanting to disappoint her. 

"I could." 

"Give it a rest, Happy." 

"That's not me! Would'ya stop blaming me for everything?!"  

"Y'know, I'm alright with blaming Happy." 

"Yeah, me too."  

"We're agreed!"  

A sly grin crept on to their faces, as the victimised Happy made his vessel, Panther's body, look more than pathetic. 

"Oi, you're wearing my fur, so at least _try_ to make me look cool." Pantherlily smiled.  

Happy laughed cutely, and thought good fishy thoughts to cheer himself up, _I'll eat takoyaki when we get home..._ "Aye sir!" He straightened his back with a smile, Fairy pride softly bubbling inside him. 

"So, what are we going to do?" Charle got herself together. "Are you sure you can't swap any of us back?" 

"Well...I've never tried before, you see," the Lady of the Lake placed her palms together, "everyone I've ever swapped has ended up dead one way or the other." 

The end of her sentence hinted that there was a plethora of ways one could die after the trauma of a body swap.

"Hey, now that's a good moral booster - oof!" Gajeel received a compact elbow jab from his blue furred companion.  

"Well, we aren't dead yet!" Natsu chirped, "let's swap us back!" 

"Hold on a minute, you can't just jump in without thinking." Wendy raised an iron knuckled finger and continued her thought. "If we swap, for example, Charle and Pantherlily's bodies, then Natsu and Charle's minds get swapped." She took a quick scan of their faces and saw they were just about clinging on to her words. "That means Charle is complete again but Natsu's mind is inside Panthers' body."

The Fairies paled at the mathematics.

"So we'd have to do lots of swaps." Charle cocked her head to one side, "That'll take too long."

"Not to mention the strain it'd put on you, Lady Viviane." Kraken looked at her, concerned. "Even one swap makes you horrifically ill, there's no way you could do more!"

Viviane furrowed her brow in thought, wondering whether to take the risk or to find another option. The only thing was, she didn't even know if there _was_ another option. 

"What about we at least try swapping one pair of us, to see if it'll work?" Panther suggested.  

Everyone looked at Viviane, "You don't have to do i-"

"I'll do it." She cut her friend short, wanting to solve the mess she had invited onto her territory.

"Great!" Wendy chirped, "Who first?"

They all exchanged looks, secretly wanting to get their bodies back before anyone else.

"I say we have a janken tournament!!" Natsu was way too excited about it; it was the only game he was good at.

After some faffing about and a roughly drawn order of passage, they had decided whoever won would get their mind put back into their body. "Ja-n-ken!" They manically cried during their matches, desperately wanting to be whole again.

There was an especially heated match between Pantherlily and Gajeel. Gajeel accused his buddy of timing his reveal slower then his own, meaning he was cheating. Since their bodies were that of Charle and Happy, it turned into a full on cat fight. The Panther won.

Despite this being a match of rock, paper, scissors, they were all taking it very seriously, though it's undetermined as to whether that was a good thing. 

The final was between Natsu and Panther. They glared at one another menacingly, their fists at the ready. "JA-" their stare didn't falter for a minute, "N-" the pressure was building, it was the moment of truth "KEN!!!!!!" They revealed their chosen form, muscles clenched tight.

Rock beats scissors.  

"WAHOUUUUU!!!" Natsu bellowed, "I'm going to be me again!" 

As he had so proudly proclaimed, Natsu was the winner of the janken tournament. 

"Okay spirit lady, swap me back!" He beamed.

Kraken wanted to reproach him of his lack of respect for deities, but settled on rolling his eyes instead. "Alright, both of you stand in front of me." She gestured to Natsu and Charle, who had Wendy and Natsu's bodies respectively. 

"What a relief!" Natsu closed his eyes, ready for the witchy hoodoo to do its stuff. As Viviane did the same, Charle scrunched her eyes nervously. 

Then a fated beetle, possibly the one which was climbing his leg not long ago, decided to whimsically land on the tip of his nose. He sniffled, twitching his nose ferociously but the beetle wasn't backing down. In fact, it controlled the game; the beetle pinched his nose between it's two elongated pincers. Meanwhile Viviane was concentrating on the spell, but all that ended when Natsu screamed. It was a blood curdling shriek, since he had Wendy's voice, which instinctively made Charle freak out. The latter tensed up, eyes springing open as she prepared to beat the crap out of anyone who would hurt Wendy. But what she saw in front of her wasn't Wendy, or even Viviane for that matter. _Why am I sat down?_ She looked down at her hind legs, spread out on the grass. _Legs... these are... my legs?!_ She jumped up in surprise, "YES!" she lifted a victorious white paw in the air. "Oi!!!! This is great!" Natsu set fire to his fists, blazing with happiness. 

"I don't get what happened but yeah, this sure is great!" Wendy twirled around, her long blue locks swaying in the breeze. She stopped and stretched her arms in front of her, relieved to see her own slender hands at the end of them. _No more iron knuckles!_ she cheered.

Happy twisted his spine and checked that his signature backpack was still there. _Yosh, all good!_

He saw Gajeel out of the corner of his eye, he was undoubtedly smirking. "I'm no longer a cat!" He cried. The exceeds looked at him haughtily. 

Panther flew and smacked his partner on the back of the head, "Are you saying you didn't like being a cat, tough guy?" Gajeel backed up, "No, I'm just not used to being so sma-" his exceed companion punched him full frontal. 

"So you're all back to normal?" Lady Viviane looked stunned.

They all stopped cheering and stared at her.

"What?" she asked quizzically.  

"You-" Charle's eyes were like saucers, "You didn't do it on purpose?"

"No, I was going to try swapping you two back, but there was a horrible scream and I messed up the spell." She admitted bashfully, her hand on the back of her head.

"Whatever happened, thank you!" Wendy walked up to her and wrapped her arms round her neck... _So cute,_ the spirit blushed. 

"Now everyone's happy, could someone get me out of here?" Kraken crossed his fins with a tired smile on his face. _All's well that ends well,_ he sighed.

"Sure." Gajeel grabbed the cage and broke the bars barehanded, basically pulling the cage in half.

"Show off." The fish mumbled.

"We need to get back to the village, and let them know it's not impossible to be swapped back!" Charle was ecstatic. 

"Oh, that's true!" The Fairies turned to the two locals, "Thank you for helping us!" they cheered in unison. Things had really taken a turn for the better, however little did they know the repercussions their _cure_ would have.

"We'll be on our way." Gajeel nodded goodbye to their unexpected friends.

"Come visit us for the Lucky Lake Bash, it starts tomorrow morning." Viviane smiled, her calming ethereal glow returning after an exhausting few hours with the guild members. 

"Sure!" Natsu and Happy's eyes gleamed at the prospect of deep fried snacks.

They happily went on their way, back to village of Berubo. 

But a cold breeze was on the horizon; a bad omen for our six Fairies. 


	10. Song and Dance

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After getting their bodies back, the Fairies are welcomed to Berubo with open arms.

The sun had just started to go down by the time they reached the village, as they walked back cheerily and somewhat sleepily. It had been another long day.

"Welcome back, Fairies!" a man wearing Doogle Gartfast's, the village head's, body walked up to them with a brilliant smile. He opened his arms wide and bowed slightly. 

"Thank you," Natsu's eyes were shining like crystals, still high on the joy of getting his body back  "we have some really good news!"   

"So do we." He boyishly pointed his thumbs towards his chest, "It's me, Doogle." The village head was previously swapped with a teenage girl, and now seemed to be back in his rightful body. 

"What?" Charle didn't feel comforted by them getting back to normal, her mind was exhausted yet she still managed to worry about everything.

"It was just ten minutes ago, we were swapped back out of the blue." Gartfast gestured to his villagers, who were all standing in a crescent to welcome their saviours. 

"That's the same time we were swapped back." Wendy touched her chin, _something's not right,_ she thought _._

Happy, who was thrilled to be back to his little blue self, didn't understand what was troubling them.

"If we're all back to normal, shouldn't we be celebrating?" Happy saw his companions' concerned expressions, and wondered what was wrong.

"I understand that Viviane's spell would affect us six, but why would the villagers be swapped too?" Gajeel thought something was up, and didn't like it. His broad arms were crossed firmly over his chest, as he looked over to the fire mage who said,

"Well they had their bodies swapped in the first place, so why wouldn't the process get reversed?" Natsu didn't want to dwell on any more drama. 

"I agree," the village head wanted to get things back on track, "we've prepared a party for you, as thanks for saving us all."

The villagers smiled, still standing in a crescent shape, as the Fairies noticed long tables full of food and drink in front of them.

"It's getting dark, let's start a fire." Gartfast nodded towards a bonfire they had set up. A man was about to light it with a match when Natsu said, "Wait a second," the man with the matches looked at the fire mage, "I can do better." Natsu smirked. 

"Fire Dragon's Brilliant Flame!" his hands were joined at arms length, taking aim at the pile of wood which was calling out to him from twenty meters away. Brilliant flames erupted from his palms, two long pylons of fire twisting into a double helix. As it reached the bonfire there was a _whoosh_ and a burst of light. The villagers shielded their eyes, "So bright!" someone said. 

When the harsh light died down, what was left was a blazing orange fire and a smug grin on Nastu's face. 

"That was _incredible!!"_ Gartfast had to lift his jaw off the ground, you didn't see many Dragon Slayer's in the hidden village of Berubo.

After that, the party had literally been set alight. People started singing drinking songs, stomping their feet and dancing in circles. The Fairies got swept up in the fun, and joined in with the celebrations. The noise was impressive, for a small village. 

"These guys sure know how to party!" Natsu was at the buffet table, stuffing his cheeks like a chipmunk stocking up for winter. 

"Aye, mm- sir!" his buddy agreed between mouthfuls, sitting on the table, munching a chicken drumstick with gravy all over his face. 

It was a rare moment, with people running around screaming, but for once no one needed saving. Pantherlily and Gajeel were sitting in a couple of rocking chairs on Gartfasts' front porch, while Gajeel played an original song for the locals on his guitar which he mysteriously procured out of nowhere. He strummed a chord, " _I... was a child once. Doo bee doo..."_ he looked up at the crowd, " _Roaming across the kingdom,"_ the beat picked up, " _I was a free and hopeful boy."_ his angst was fully pronounced, as he looked to the sky nostalgically. " _But the night, it was a battlefield, the days were long and hot." "Doo bee dooooo"_ Pantherlily did the accompaniment, nodding his head to the rhythm. 

Meanwhile not far away Wendy and Charle were with a group of children as they sat in a little circle and played games. The current game involved Wendy's powers, she created a small gust of wind, which sent leaves dancing in the air and the kids had to catch as many as they could. There were giggles as the children scrambled for the flying leaves, bumping into one another, and one girl had taken to plaiting Wendy's hair. 

By the tables, the locals drank beer and sang a merry tune, " _I don't care about the strife, I will live a happy life. No more pain, no more strain, I'll make it though the niiight!_ " The Fairies all looked at them, the way their arms wrapped round one another, glass of drink in one hand and a toothy grin on their faces. 

"Oi, teach me the song!" Natsu was fascinated, as Happy sat on his head looking around at the mayhem. Someone handed him a paper with the lyrics written on them. 

The Fairies got up and crowded around the pink haired boy, looking over his shoulder as they joined in.

" _Nothing that I can not do, keep my head up thanks to you. Won't be tamed, won't feel shame, we'll make it worth the fiiight! Lalalala la lala la!_ " 

Singing voices carried throughout the land, making a night they would never forget. They all fell asleep round the bonfire, warmed by drink and embers. The Fairies were tangled together, legs on foreign chests and hands on foreign faces, as they formed a lace of people. When the only sound was that of nature, insects chirping and frogs ribbeting, they dreamed. 

" _Natsu, come see this!"_ Happy was running around in his dreams, " _There's a fish! A giant fish!!!!"  He smushed his face against the aquarium glass, drool wetting his chin._ His legs twitched in accordance with his active mind, soaking in the bliss of FishLand. Said leg was pressed against Gajeels' arm, who was crossing them in denial even in his sleep. The sand fairy was giving him sweet dreams, not that he'd admit to liking them. _"I'd like to sing this song for a special someone."_ Gajeel was sitting on a chair onstage in front of a huge crowd; when he gave them a smile they roared in adoration.  "Encore, encore..." he mumbled into the night. 

The next morning the sun poked up from the horizon, warming the sleeping people wrapped around the embers of the bonfire. 

But then, "HELP!!" a broken voice could be heard in the distance. "HELP!!" it cried again.

Charle raised her head from her paws, still groggy. "What's going on?" she mumbled through sleep.

She saw a small silhouette running towards them, "Wake up." she whispered to her drowsy guild-mates, "Wake up guys, something's wrong."

"Who is that?" Pantherlily rubbed his eyes, trying to stay awake. 

"VIVIANE'S IN TROUBLE!!" it was Kraken, and he had tears in his eyes.

"Oh my god." Wendy whispered under her breath. "What's the matter?" she asked him, taking his fins in her hands. "What happened to Viviane?" her eyes showed concern, but she stayed calm.

Kraken took a deep breath, gathering his thoughts, "L-lady Viviane... she's..." he trembled, "she's dying." his voice broke at the last word.

They went pale, eyes dark with pain, "But she was fine yesterday." Happy hugged himself, "Right?"

"After you left, in the evening, she started feeling faint." Kraken put his head in his fins, "Then this morning she wouldn't wake up." 

"Is it the fever she gets after she curses others?" Charle tried to rationalise, remembering what he said about her getting ill.

"No, this is different." Kraken was one to know, he'd been with her though dozens of those fevers. "She's even weaker than that?" Wendy asked.

"Yes, please help, I don't know what to do!" The fish pulled at Wendy's hand, taking her to Lake Belbor. 

"Wait up!" Natsu shouted, waking up a few sleeping locals, "We'll go too!" The guild members marched over to see Viviane, hoping there was something they could do to help.

When they reached the lake, the spirit was lying down in the centre of it, on the waters' surface, her long hair trailing beneath her. She was pale, which was saying something for a translucent spirit, and trembled in her sleep. Wendy walked up to her, wading through for a few meters then swimming the rest of the way. She raised her palms over Vivane's chest and stomach, mumbling a spell under her breath. A blue glow radiated from her palms, as a powerful healing spell was cast. As the magic ended, Lake Belbors' leader opened her eyes wearily, and smiled up at the comforting faces in front of her. Kraken had jumped in after the blue haired mage, and was watching from the sidelines.

"It was only a small spell, but it should make you feel slightly better." Wendy took her hands in her own, and with Kraken she guided her slowly to the lakeside. There the Fairies were all looking concerned, and stepped back to give her some space. 

"Do you have a doctor you could see?" Charle tried to help.

"It's-" Viviane breathed weakly, "It's not something that can be healed."

Kraken, who was right by her side, touched her forehead and winced at how fragile she felt. 

"What do you mean, can't be healed?" he said slowly, worry making his blood boil.

Viviane closed her eyes as a tear fell across her cheek, rippling the surface as it fell into Lake Belbor.

"My magic is gone." she coughed, a rough and painful sound.


	11. Turning Point

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After discovering Viviane's magic is gone they must choose what to do, despite helplessness clouding their minds.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's a very short chapter marking a transition into chapter 12 (which will be up soon) where the real action starts.

"This can't be happening." Kraken laughed, panic raging inside him. 

"I'm sorry," Viviane said "but I don't know what to do." she smiled a feeble smile, lifting her hand to Kraken's face. He flinched back, and regretted doing so not one moment later. 

"How can we help?" Wendy whispered to Charle, "She just gave us our bodies back, we have to do _something._ " she said, empathy making her heart ache. 

Kraken lowered his mouth into the water, blowing bubbles in thought, "The Lake Bash." It suddenly popped into his mind. "We have to cancel it."he said, water and bubbles warping the sound.

"No!" the spirit sat upright, having to take a moment to steady herself; she had spoken forcefully towards her friend, and felt guilty for that, "No," she repeated more gently, "the Lake Bash is our only chance to heal our relationship with Lake Rubo."

Kraken wasn't listening to anything she said, but as long as she would just lie back down he would say anything, "Okay, just rest now." he comforted, lowering her back into a lying position.

"We can help," Pantherlily said, "we'll fix it... somehow."

"Yes!" Wendy nodded, "Leave the Lake Bash to us!"

"We don't know the procedures though." Gajeel mumbled gruffly. 

"Kraken does!" Happy bobbed over to him and slapped the fish on the back. Kraken used all his willpower to not drown him.

"No no no, I'm staying right by her side." He meant it.

"But what about the Lake Ba-"

"Lake Bash be damned! Do you even understand how serious this is?!" Kraken lifted a fin to his forehead, on the verge of tears again, "She dying!" he swallowed, hard, closing his eyes "She's dying..." his voice lowered to a desolate whisper.

The Fairies felt like helpless onlookers and stayed silent.

"Don't worry," Viviane's silky voice said, "I'll never die." She gave him a childish grin that made Kraken want to cry even more.

"You don't know that. I'm staying with y-"

"Go."

"No."

"Kraken, please, for me."

"Don't play that "please for me" card!" Kraken stuttered, raising his fins brashly, "You're not well! I'm staying with you! You need me, right?!" he looked her straight in the eye.

"I need you and I cherish you, but right now I need you to prepare for the tournament." her voice held a strength that felt as old as the earth itself, touching the fish's heart.

"You're so strong," Kraken chuckled gently, "but just look at the both of us." Viviane was lying on the water's surface, weakened, with Kraken by her side sick to his stomach with worry. 

He paused for a second, then pumped his veins full of resolve, "Get your butts moving, Fairies!" rallying his spirit, "We've got a tournament to prepare for and not long to do it in!" Kraken jumped out of the water, his back to Vivian. _She'd_ _better be alright,_ he menaced the earth itself, _because_ _if she dies, I'll destroy you._


End file.
